Department for Communities and Local Government

Solar Power: Non-domestic Rates

Mr Alan Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that proposed increases in business rates do not have a negative effect on the British solar industry.

Mr Alan Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of changes in the business rate on the British solar industry.

Mr Marcus Jones: Business rates are based on valuations from the Valuation Office Agency and we do not intervene in their independent assessments. We have put in place a £3.6 billion transitional relief scheme to ensure that no ratepayer is unfairly penalised by the 2017 revaluation.

Local Government: West Midlands

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an estimate of the potential effect on (a) staffing, (b) administrative and (c) other costs of replacing Shropshire Council and Telford and Wrekin Council with a single unitary authority.

Mr Marcus Jones: It is for the Shropshire Council and Telford & Wrekin Council to decide whether they wish to merge into a single unitary council to improve the local governance of the area and make it more sustainable, and if so to make an assessment of the potential effects on services, staffing, and costs which they would need to include as part of any formal governance change to be submitted to the Secretary of State.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Agriculture: Subsidies

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many Basic Payment Scheme claims made in 2015 are yet to be fully resolved by the Rural Payments Agency; and how many such claims were resolved by that agency in each of the last 12 months.

George Eustice: Holding answer received on 19 December 2016



As at the 21 December, in addition to claims which the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) cannot pay due to legal reasons such as probate, there are 6 BPS claims to complete for BPS 2015. The RPA is investigating new queries it has received and is currently reviewing 2,539 of these.We understand how important BPS payments are to farmers and we’re working hard to get money into bank accounts. We’ve agreed that BPS 2016 payments for certain claimants whose 2015 claims are still being reviewed, such as some types of common land claims, should not be held up. The 2016 payment will be based on the current 2016 claim information we hold.